A day after Pakistan asserted that it had booked 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and others in terror financing cases, India has reportedly called out the neighbouring country’s sham move, stating that it had already seen this ‘action’ before.
“We have seen this ‘action’ before. It is important that the action is irreversible and verifiable,” government sources were quoted as saying by a news agency.
Pakistan on Wednesday announced that it had booked Saeed, 12 of his aides and four more organisations in Lahore in cases of terror financing.
The terrorists have been booked for collection of funds for terrorism financing through assets registered in the names of non-profit organisations including Ak- Anfaal Trust, Dawat ul Irshad Trust etc, Pakistan media reports.
The purported action against the terrorists has been taken by the country’s Punjab province’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
In a statement quoted by local media, CTD said, “Large scale investigations launched into financing matters of proscribed organisations Jamaat-ud-Dawa & Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in connection with the implementation of UN Sanctions against these Designated Entities & Persons as directed by NSC (National Security Committee) in its Meeting of 1st January 2019 chaired by the PM Imran Khan…
Pakistan’s alleged move to crack down on terror groups comes in the wake of the Paris-based terror funding watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), warning the Imran Khan government in Pakistan of necessary action against the country if it failed to execute an “action plan”.
The FATF also directed Pakistan to take concrete steps against terror financing by October.
Pakistan had been put on the FATF’s grey list in June 2018 and had been told to implement a 27-point action plan to tackle the menace of terror financing and money laundering taking place on its soil. Pakistan was retained in the grey list in February after India shared new information about terror groups based in Pakistan.
In view of the country’s dire situation, it is imperative for Pakistan to ensure that it doesn’t get blacklisted by the FATF for non-compliance of the action plan against curbing terror financing.
In a statement issued on Friday, FATF had said, “The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress.”
The United Nations Security Council had earlier this year declared Saeed as a global terrorist.
SOURCE-TIMES NOW
